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South Africa's peaceful political transition holds
potential to address social, economic issues
Following her speech about South Afrrica, Helen Suzman met Richard Landsman, (from left) a member of the UTSA
Development Board, Division Director Richard Alvirez and faculty member Raymond Baird at a reception.
Six months after the first democratic elections
in South Africa, former South African
Parliament member Helen Suzman is
optimistic about her country's new
government and its ability to solve many
internal problems.
Suzman, nominated twice for the Nobel
Peace Prize for her role as the sole opposition
member to apartheid in Parliament from 1953
to her retirement in 1989, praised newly
elected President Nelson
Mandela as the key figure in
the peaceful transition of
power in that country.
"He has taken the world
by storm — there is nobody
with the charisma and
impact of Nelson Mandela in
South Africa or in foreign
countries," said the 76-year-
old Suzman, who is the
same age as Mandela. "For
five years he was the world's
most important political
prisoner, and now he is the most sought after
world leader.
"Mandela is loved by everyone and he has a
remarkable way of winning people over," she
said. Suzman, who first met Mandela in 1967
while he was in prison, spoke to about 100
people in the Humanities-Business Building
last week. "He has a good appearance, he
communicates well, and he seeks
reconciliation rather then revenge."
South Africa's struggles
South Africa is struggling to overcome
economic problems exacerbated by years of
United Nations-imposed sanctions — to create
jobs to alleviate poverty, to construct
affordable housing, and to provide quality
education and health care for its growing
population, she said.
Suzman said 7 million South Africans live
in squatter camps, and they need visible signs
that their standard of living will improve.
'There's no quick fix," Suzman said. "It
takes time, but the intentions are there.
Mandela is the one man who can hold the
situation together. I'm very, very hopeful
about the future of South Africa."
Mandela's government has already made
several changes, Suzman said. South Africa
"I apologized to an older black woman who had
waited several hours in line to vote. She said, 'It's
okay, I've been waiting 46 years to vote.'"
— Helen Suzman,
former opposition member of South Africa's Parliament
now has a double national anthem and 11
official languages, and is in the process of
changing the names of several airports and
cities.
South Africa's new government is composed
of Mandela's cabinet of 27 secretaries, which
includes members of other political parties, a
400-seat National Assembly, a 90-member
Senate, nine regional governments, and an
11-member Constitutional Court with power
to rule on the constitutionality of laws.
Mandela's African National Congress, or ANC,
is the largest political party in the country.
"Everyone knew the ANC would win the
elections," Suzman said. "There are 39 million
people in South Africa, and 30 million are
black. Most people decided to vote for the
party with the best chance."
The April 27 national elections were
substantially free and fair, she said. Suzman
was one of 16 commissioners charged with
organizing and running the electoral process.
The job included providing voter education
to 22 million people about why and how to
vote in a country that had no voter
registration rolls, developing a paper ballot
with names, symbols, acronyms and pictures
of 27 political party leaders because many
voters were illiterate, and setting up and
organizing almost 10,000 polling places. All of
this was accomplished in just four months,
she said.
"We managed to muddle through the
elections with surprisingly little violence
despite the long lines of voters," Suzman said.
"I apologized to an older black woman who
had waited several hours in line to vote. She
said, 'It's okay, I've been waiting 46 years to
vote.' "
The elections culminated five years of major
change that saw the country abolish
apartheid after intense international lobbying
and sanctions.
Apartheid's failure
"The apartheid system, which had a 40-to-
50 year trial run, failed dismally because it
segregated society in an integrated economy,"
said Suzman, who is the author of In No
Uncertain Terms, a 1993 memoir other
political life. She holds honorary degrees from
several universities around the world for her
36 years of work to abolish apartheid.
Suzman described the
apartheid laws she opposed in
Parliament. The laws forced
people to register their
ethnicity at birth and
subsequently determined
"what schools you could go to,
who you could marry, who
you could have sexual
relations with, and where you
could buy property or reside.
"Politically, blacks had no
vote except in their local black
councils in the black
homelands, which meant they were barred
from having any say in laws that Parliament
passed to govern them," she said.
Suzman said she hopes the dramatic
changes in South Africa will attract the
outside help needed by the country. The
nation has many pluses — an agricultural
industry, an excellent infrastructure, an
established finance and communications
industry, and good human resources, she
said.
"We need help from the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund and real
investment capital to create ongoing
employment," Suzman said. "We need money
to come back into the country so we can show
the world that we're not just another basket
case in Africa." — Carol Gifford

South Africa's peaceful political transition holds
potential to address social, economic issues
Following her speech about South Afrrica, Helen Suzman met Richard Landsman, (from left) a member of the UTSA
Development Board, Division Director Richard Alvirez and faculty member Raymond Baird at a reception.
Six months after the first democratic elections
in South Africa, former South African
Parliament member Helen Suzman is
optimistic about her country's new
government and its ability to solve many
internal problems.
Suzman, nominated twice for the Nobel
Peace Prize for her role as the sole opposition
member to apartheid in Parliament from 1953
to her retirement in 1989, praised newly
elected President Nelson
Mandela as the key figure in
the peaceful transition of
power in that country.
"He has taken the world
by storm — there is nobody
with the charisma and
impact of Nelson Mandela in
South Africa or in foreign
countries," said the 76-year-
old Suzman, who is the
same age as Mandela. "For
five years he was the world's
most important political
prisoner, and now he is the most sought after
world leader.
"Mandela is loved by everyone and he has a
remarkable way of winning people over," she
said. Suzman, who first met Mandela in 1967
while he was in prison, spoke to about 100
people in the Humanities-Business Building
last week. "He has a good appearance, he
communicates well, and he seeks
reconciliation rather then revenge."
South Africa's struggles
South Africa is struggling to overcome
economic problems exacerbated by years of
United Nations-imposed sanctions — to create
jobs to alleviate poverty, to construct
affordable housing, and to provide quality
education and health care for its growing
population, she said.
Suzman said 7 million South Africans live
in squatter camps, and they need visible signs
that their standard of living will improve.
'There's no quick fix," Suzman said. "It
takes time, but the intentions are there.
Mandela is the one man who can hold the
situation together. I'm very, very hopeful
about the future of South Africa."
Mandela's government has already made
several changes, Suzman said. South Africa
"I apologized to an older black woman who had
waited several hours in line to vote. She said, 'It's
okay, I've been waiting 46 years to vote.'"
— Helen Suzman,
former opposition member of South Africa's Parliament
now has a double national anthem and 11
official languages, and is in the process of
changing the names of several airports and
cities.
South Africa's new government is composed
of Mandela's cabinet of 27 secretaries, which
includes members of other political parties, a
400-seat National Assembly, a 90-member
Senate, nine regional governments, and an
11-member Constitutional Court with power
to rule on the constitutionality of laws.
Mandela's African National Congress, or ANC,
is the largest political party in the country.
"Everyone knew the ANC would win the
elections," Suzman said. "There are 39 million
people in South Africa, and 30 million are
black. Most people decided to vote for the
party with the best chance."
The April 27 national elections were
substantially free and fair, she said. Suzman
was one of 16 commissioners charged with
organizing and running the electoral process.
The job included providing voter education
to 22 million people about why and how to
vote in a country that had no voter
registration rolls, developing a paper ballot
with names, symbols, acronyms and pictures
of 27 political party leaders because many
voters were illiterate, and setting up and
organizing almost 10,000 polling places. All of
this was accomplished in just four months,
she said.
"We managed to muddle through the
elections with surprisingly little violence
despite the long lines of voters," Suzman said.
"I apologized to an older black woman who
had waited several hours in line to vote. She
said, 'It's okay, I've been waiting 46 years to
vote.' "
The elections culminated five years of major
change that saw the country abolish
apartheid after intense international lobbying
and sanctions.
Apartheid's failure
"The apartheid system, which had a 40-to-
50 year trial run, failed dismally because it
segregated society in an integrated economy,"
said Suzman, who is the author of In No
Uncertain Terms, a 1993 memoir other
political life. She holds honorary degrees from
several universities around the world for her
36 years of work to abolish apartheid.
Suzman described the
apartheid laws she opposed in
Parliament. The laws forced
people to register their
ethnicity at birth and
subsequently determined
"what schools you could go to,
who you could marry, who
you could have sexual
relations with, and where you
could buy property or reside.
"Politically, blacks had no
vote except in their local black
councils in the black
homelands, which meant they were barred
from having any say in laws that Parliament
passed to govern them," she said.
Suzman said she hopes the dramatic
changes in South Africa will attract the
outside help needed by the country. The
nation has many pluses — an agricultural
industry, an excellent infrastructure, an
established finance and communications
industry, and good human resources, she
said.
"We need help from the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund and real
investment capital to create ongoing
employment," Suzman said. "We need money
to come back into the country so we can show
the world that we're not just another basket
case in Africa." — Carol Gifford